So here is how this is going to work. We're all going to place imaginary bets because I'd love to but shouldn't scam everyone that sends in money to me. So don't send me anything you don't want me to keep. Then, after a while, Bopp will post on the thread how she'd have made all of the gear in Spiral Knights and we'll see who was closest. When that happens I'll update the OP.
My bet, is that Bopp would make it more centralized, where class armor etc. would be accessible.
Bopp would do something we wouldn't expect just to spite us
Since this thread isn't very active (which is fine with me), I'll chime in now.
They would not throw out much opinions about bombs, as it's not their field of expertise
Actually, I use bombs more than guns. But I don't claim to be an expert in guns or bombs (or swords below 5-star).
In swords, there is obviously a lot of repetition, where a single sword style (brandish or flourish) is adjusted for different levels of damage and status. The developers could introduce more diversity in a really easy way, by tinkering with a few other obvious parameters: attack speed, length, width, knockback, movement while swinging, etc. Here are three examples:
I'm not saying that these are the best ways to design and balance swords. I'm just saying that these are really easy adjustments, that don't require serious creativity or programming.
There should not be a systematic buffing of normal swords; normal damage fills a particular niche in the rules of the game. But the family-specific bonuses on CIV and WHB are obsolete, so those swords should be updated.
Armor is certainly pretty misbalanced, and it would be nice if there were more viable play styles (I enjoyed your recent thread about a defensive style, Fehzor), and the Hall of Heroes makes the economy a little dull. But, as you can tell, I don't have serious ideas about how to design all of this stuff.
Brandishes are fine length-wise. They just need a 10% damage nerf.
Back to the game:
Zombies could feed on knights to gain health
Lumbers would no longer attack faster than flipping Chromalisks
Wolvers attack slightly faster
The two forgotten toothpicks receive a +10% damage boost OR Final Flourish line gets removed
Winfinity
Blackhawk gets normal range, DA charge flitch fixed
Radiants drop in D26 or higher and have a 50% chance to spawn whenever crystals spawn in said depths
Blitz attacks receive a 10% damage nerf.
Imploding driver shots give half damage
Pulsar lines get 2 shots per clip
CIV does pure elemental
DA and GF speed bars fixed, also Sudarska and Mighty Cleaver gets stun chance on second hit
Irontech gets a speed buff, 5% damage nerf, and deals fire instead of stun
Shocking Salt Bomb and Scintillating Sun Shards behave like old shard bombs but with a 15% damage nerf compared to the old bombs
Violent Heart attack would deal damage instead of releasing useless fireworks everywhere
Haunted Haze ghosts deal 40x more damage then they do now
MSI trinkets/buff
Catalyzer charges would be 3x quicker and can track opponents
IS would be removed so that forum nodes would rise less, same with Cautery Sword
Chaos would have stun weakness and CTR low per piece instead of the ctr med
Wolver lines will receive a 10% defense nerf
Jelly gets 2x stun resistance for sleep resistance/slooms return permanently
Devilites will not track their throws.
Greavers cannot dash into knights like they do now, they must move normally
New beast monster
Retrodes and Scuttlebots get new attacks
Howlitzer heads deal 20% less damage but the heads themselves get 100 extra hp
Mortafires' shields defend 95% of the outputted damage from attacks instead of the annoying klinkklink sound
Red Rovers' flamethrower lasts longer, also some Red Rovers spawn near the water wells in D28 FSC on Phase 5
Ghost blades and shield bashes can damage the RTs
And that is all I can think of now.
Brandishes are fine length-wise. They just need a 10% damage nerf.
Yes, brandishes are "fine length-wise", meaning that there is no reason why their lengths have to be changed. And yes you can balance them by tuning their damage numbers.
My point is that there are other ways to balance swords, that are not any harder than tuning damage numbers, that may produce slightly more interesting effects on game play.
Wait.....Bopp's a girl? Well, makes sense, since they actually type readable and organized posts. Who woulda thunk...
And guys, you need to think like OOO. The way to balance the game:
1) Winmillion meeds 5*
2) WAIT it would hurt bombers!!
3)) Buff bomber armor?
4) Nah, wolver neers buff because we want more money from swordies
5)) But what about gunnerss? Make new guns?
6) Nah, lets wait until Nov. 31st to release new guns.
7) Buff brandishes?
8) OK.
As you see, this is clearly how they "fix" the game. Since when did buffing the weakest sword in the game become a good idea? They would overdo it by making its range 4x and the charge op. Or they could underdo it. All we know is that a winmillion buff is 100% guaranteed to end in failure, like every update after lockdown came out.
Interesting. I suppose that'd definitely be the way to go with those kinds of things-like how I wanted armors to all actually be unique and special a while ago. So many people come on and say "20% DAMAGE THIS AND 10% DAMAGE THIS AND-" they don't even realize that there is more to a weapon than a raw damage number.
If only they'd made all the weapons like that.
I imagine Bopp would recommend buffs for:
Both cutters, but WHB moreso
Winmillion, giving it a 5*
Status flourishes
Gran Faust, perhaps lowering charge time?
CIV
Both troikas, but Triglav moreso
Magma and Hail Driver
Magnus, both branches but Iron Slug moreso
They would not throw out much opinions about bombs, as it's not their field of expertise
I assume they would also recommend buffs for basically anything that is not black kat, chaos or class armours.